


Lightning Striking the Same Place Twice

by singingwithoutwords



Series: A Life in Garden Metaphors [4]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Underage Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-30
Updated: 2014-06-30
Packaged: 2018-02-06 21:57:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1873938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singingwithoutwords/pseuds/singingwithoutwords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint has a history with rape.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lightning Striking the Same Place Twice

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read as a stand-alone fic, but was written in the context of [the gardenverse](http://archiveofourown.org/series/70637), which was itself written around [Guess This Is Our Reward](http://archiveofourown.org/works/806356) by Frostiron_OTP.
> 
> I want to make it clear right now that what Clint's lived through in no way excuses what he did- this story isn't meant to justify anything. What the Avengers did to Tony was wrong, and none of this changes that. This is nothing more than background on gardenverse!Clint and the way his past has shaped his perceptions in the story canon.

**1982**

It's late at night, after the marks have all gone home and the shows have shut down, and Clint slips away into the forest looking to be alone for a bit. He doesn't go far, stays close enough to see the glow of the campfires through the tree trunks, but it turns out to be just a bit too far.

The guy is local, dressed in an old coat and stained jeans, and his grin is missing teeth. He comes out of nowhere, grabbing Clint's arm, and from the point of view of eleven, he's huge and a little bit terrifying.

Clint does try to get away, but he's a scrawny little kid, and the guy doesn't give him much of a chance, and it turns out that he's too far away from camp to yell for help.

And sex hurts. Sex hurts a lot, shoved face-down in the dirt and dead leaves with hands twice as big as his own on him and breath that smells like something died against his cheek. It hurts so much he can't stop crying, even after the guy finishes and leaves him there.

It's almost dawn when Clint limps back into camp, and Barney yells at him for disappearing like that, then hugs him close like he doesn't ever want to let go. The doc patches him up and gives him some pills for the pain, and thank God they're leaving today, because it takes all the way to the next town before Clint can walk normally.

Clint makes sure to never wander out of screaming distance of camp again.

 

**1988**

It's raining and miserable and Clint just wants to get somewhere dry and maybe even warm, but all the good spots in this neighborhood are taken, so he's stuck in a back alley trying not to get even wetter than he already is.

She shows up first, out of breath and soaked. Clint's pretty sure she doesn't see him, too busy looking for her own place to hide, but she doesn't have time before they catch up to her.

There's three of them, all wearing leather and denim with face piercings and visible ink. One of them grabs her arm and slams her against the wall. The second one turns to face the alley mouth, and Clint catches the gleam of neon and streetlight on the wet metal of a gun. The third one laughs, and Clint's hearing isn't good enough to make out what he says to her, but his eyes can't miss how she goes even paler.

He has his bare hands and they have guns, and he'll only get killed if he tries to help, so he forces himself to stay put. He presses even further into the shadow of the Dumpster and closes his eyes.

It doesn't help.

The rain lets up, but the screaming doesn't. All three of the bastards have a go at her, and and it seems like hours before they're finally finished. Clint's nails have dug trenches into his palm and he's bitten his lip bloody, using the pain to distract himself as much as possible.

The three men leave. Clint doesn't move for several minutes more. When he opens his eyes, she's still lying in a heap against the wall. Her dress is torn, there's a bruise forming on her cheek, and she's staring straight at him with accusation and betrayal in her eyes.

Clint slowly unfolds himself, pulling off the jacket he can't actually afford to lose, tossing it on the ground next to her. He doesn't apologize, doesn't say a word- just turns and walks away.

It's months before he can close his eyes without seeing her face.

 

**1993**

The job goes south almost immediately. Clint's contact gave him bad intel, and he walks straight into an ambush. They seem more interested in capturing him than killing him, which is never a good thing. He's really not looking forward to being tortured for info he doesn't have. Again.

The rope they're using is shitty. It's rough and bites into his skin, abrading it when he struggles a bit too much. He makes them work to get the gag in, even though it'll probably come back out soon enough- can't spill his guts if he's gagged, after all.

They take him straight to Marconi and force him to kneel, a routine Clint's gone through before. He takes it in stride, playing at being a good little captive, waiting for his chance to escape.

Marconi is a fan. He compliments Clint on a few of his kills, praises his technique, tells him he has amazing eyes. Calls him beautiful.

It turns out Marconi set the whole thing up. Marconi hired the guy who hired Clint, because Marconi wants him. Not his skill as a marksman, not as a hitman or even a bodyguard- just him. And Clint fights as much as he can, but in the end Marconi always has him- whenever, however he wants.

Marconi doesn't take very good care of him. He's fed and bathed, but never untied. The ropes leave his wrists and ankles raw and red, sometimes bleeding, and after the first few days everything tastes like the rubber of that fucking gag. A chance to escape never presents itself, and Marconi makes sure never to leave him alone with anyone who could be a potential ally.

When the raid comes, the agents mistake him for a whore at first. He almost manages to escape, but one of the senior agents finally recognizes him at just the wrong time, and he's offered a choice: spend the rest of his life in jail, or work for SHIELD. Clint opts for freedom, however limited it might be.

He makes sure they bury how they found him as part of the deal.

 

**2000**

The op goes smoothly. No one dies, no one but the bad guys even get injured. He even makes it to the safe house with time to spare. It means an extra day before extraction, but that's okay- he's got a roof over his head, food to eat, clean clothes, even company.

The handler isn't one he's met before, but he's been with SHIELD long enough to know he can trust whoever they've sent with him, and it's partially due to this guy being so good that the op went as smooth as it did. They play cards, eat dinner, and Clint doesn't see any reason why he shouldn't catch some sleep.

It turns out to be a big mistake, because he wakes up around midnight with the handler on top of him. Clint's a good fighter, but the handler already knows that, and he's figured out how to deal with it. The fight's short and ugly and ends with Clint on the bedroom floor struggling to breathe while the handler yanks his hands behind him and cuffs them there.

Then the asshole pulls his firearm and presses the muzzle against the base of Clint's neck, tells Clint he's read his file.  The hidden one. He knows about how SHIELD found him.  About Marconi. Knows there's no point in Clint fighting, because he doesn't have anything left to protect.

And as much as Clint hates to admit it, even to himself, the bastard has a point. It's just violence, and not even a kind of violence he isn't familiar with- it's not worth dying over. So he stops fighting. He lets it happen. It doesn't even hurt that much.

He doesn't need to be told he can't do anything about it, really. He's got a shady past against his handler's spotless record. He's a thug, a sharpshooter whose loyalty still isn't accepted by everyone. He can't even take hollow revenge, not unless he wants to go to jail. He doesn't need to be told any of it, but the asshole wastes the breath to tell him, anyway. Clint grits his teeth, nods, and spends the next 37 hours until extraction wedged into the smallest bolthole he can find.

It's years before Clint lets his guard down around a handler again.

 

**2013**

They leave the party way too drunk and way too early, piling into the back of Tony's fancy limo. Tony's drunker than anyone else, giggling like a maniac and saying anything that pops into his head, not even bothering to keep his ass in the seat while the car is in motion.  Clint winds up with a lapful of genius somehow, and would probably protest, except Tony starts humping him like a horny teenager.

Hazed over with alcohol, irritation, and his own growing hard-on, Clint's mind takes a minute to make its way down the well-worn paths of association experience has left behind. He connects Tony with fame with the internet with videos with sex, and his erection with lust with teasing with Tony with solving the problem with sex. Tony likes sex. Clint likes sex. Humping him into a raging boner is a blatant invitation to sex.

Tony slides off him and onto the floor, and Clint won't say no to a blowjob at all, except Tony tries to leave him there, which makes him a cocktease of the highest order. And drunk Clint may be, but he knows Tony better than that. He pulls him back, and it takes a little petting and a little prodding, but he gets what he was promised.

Then Thor puts his hands on Tony, and Natasha decides to help, and things go from there. Steve objects, just a little, but it's not as if he can say anyone's not enjoying it. They even get him to join in. Bonding as a team. Clint can't say how long it lasts, but he wishes it lasted longer, anyway.

At the end of it, at least they all go to bed satisfied.

 

**Author's Note:**

> As always, feel free to visit [my tumblr](http://singingwithoutwords.tumblr.com/) if you want to contact me for any reason, even just to say hi- my ask box is always open.


End file.
